Tracking that survives a busy week
A tracker fails when it asks for more than you will give it on a tired Thursday. Keep the required fields few, let the optional ones stay blank, and review on a schedule rather than on impulse.
The fields that earn their place
- Company and role, so you recognize the row in three weeks.
- Stage, kept honest: applied is not the same as screening.
- Date applied, which is what makes follow-up timing possible.
- Follow-up date, set at the moment you submit.
- Source, so you learn which channels actually produce conversations.
- Notes, for contacts, links, and anything you promised to send.
Keep stages honest
The temptation is to move a role forward on hope. Resist it. A stage should change only when the employer does something. Accurate stages are what let a weekly review take ten minutes instead of an hour of re-reading email.
The weekly review
- Send any follow-ups that came due this week.
- Close out roles that were filled or rejected, so the list stays readable.
- Count how many applications you sent, without judging the number.
- Pick the two or three roles that deserve real attention next week.
Start with the spreadsheet
If you have no system at all, a spreadsheet you actually fill in beats a tool you never open. The free template has the fields above and imports into Applas later if you outgrow it.
Related guides
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